Daniel Cormier emotionally welcomes Luke Rockhold to the “world of retirement” as he remembers former champions from AKA

Daniel Cormier emotionally welcomes Luke Rockhold to the “world of retirement” as he remembers former champions from AKA

Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Luke Rockhold, coach Javier Mende and Cain Velasquez [far left]

You all may or may not have noticed but Daniel Cormier has an astonishing point of view on Luke Rockhold’s recent loss leading to his retirement at UFC 278. Rockhold, the former UFC middleweight champion and the former Strikeforce middleweight champion, lost to Paulo Costa, the former UFC middleweight title challenger, via unanimous decision after a 3-round war that turned out to be highly brutal and entertaining at the same time for the fight fans.

After that, as it was evident, Rockhold did give every bit of his body to make it a spectacular return for himself and even in loss, he got the fans’ utmost respect. The elite fighter of the prestigious American Kickboxing Academy decided to announce his retirement. Rockhold is the fourth fighter amongst AKA’s UFC champions who have retired and now the gym has no former UFC champion as an active fighter anymore. The first person to retire was former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, followed by UFC Hall of Famers Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier.

“When we were Kings,” Daniel Cormier hits nostalgia on fight fans’ Twitter feed with an emotional post

American Kickboxing Academy
Coach Javier Mendez, Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier [L to R]. Luke Rockhold (top)

In a bittersweet, emotional tweet put out by former Olympian and former simultaneous 2-division champion Daniel Cormier, he wrote in captions “When we were kings! Welcome to the world of retirement @lukerockhold I love these people. AKA forever @TeamKhabib @akajav @crazybobcook @cainmma RIP coach Javi #freecain“ and posted a flashback photo of Rockhold winning the UFC middleweight championship back in 2015 alongside Cormier, Khabib and Velasquez being the picture. The highlighting figure in the picture was none other than the head coach of American Kickboxing Academy, Javier Mendez.

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Each one out of all the four aforementioned fighters has legendary wins over the biggest names of MMA. Rockhold is known for his wins over the likes of Chris Weidman, Lyoto Machida, Ronaldo Souza, Michael Bisping and many more. Velasquez is known for his wins over Travis Browne, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Silva, Junior Dos Santos, Rodrigo Nogueira and many more. Khabib is known for his wins over Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Rafael Dos Anjos and many more. Finally, Cormier is known for his wins over Stipe Miocic, Anthony Johnson, Frank Mir, Josh Barnett, Antonio Silva, Alexander Gustafsson and many more.

What do you make of this certain kind of “End of an Era” for the American Kickboxing Academy? Do you see Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez joining Cormier and Khabib in the UFC Hall of Fame sooner or later? Where do you put coach Mendez amongst the greatest MMA coaches of all time? What do you see in the future of American Kickboxing Academy? So far, Khabib’s brothers, Umar and Usman Nurmagomedov and his longtime friend Islam Makhachev are heading to become the future world champions in near future.

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